Today I have spoken to a packed room on the ins and outs of writing sex, sat in an empty room that was supposed to be a reading/signing, gave an intimate talk on fanfiction, and been interviewed for YouTube.

I gave a copy of House of Sable Locks to Jacqueline Carey, an author who I admire greatly, and told her it was all her fault (for my career, and for the career of Moira Katson, who also started out writing on The Night Court.)

Now I’m sitting at my table, decompressing and watching the tables of two friends who are on a panel. I’m thinking about going and getting some tea, and I just said hi to Orson Scott Card and his wife as they went past my table.

Tomorrow, I have a panel on writing cross-genre, and we’ll see what else happens. But I am truly having an awesome convention!

Today was the third grade field trip. 120 8-and-9-year-old kids went to Legoland, and I had charge of two eight-year-old boys all day (one mine, one borrowed). Really, we had a BLAST. The Legend of Chima ride involves waterguns, and many truth in advertising warnings that you WILL get soaked. The Dragon roller coaster wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be — roller coasters and I don’t get along, but this one was actually fun. Lots of rides, lots of walking, lots and LOTS of Legos, 120 very tired kids on the buses home. So, given this, I had very little online time until we were on the bus to come home. Looking at my email, I found that I’d been tagged on Facebook by Cecilia Tan: Hey, have you seen this?

This, for anyone who doesn’t want to click through, is Cliterati’s list of 100 Modern Erotic Classics that You’ve Never Heard of, a list curated by Rebecca Black in honor of the first ever Erotic World Book Day (March 5th).

House of Sable Locks is on that list.

I appear to have written a modern erotic classic. That’s pretty mind-blowing, especially since Sable Locks is only my second novel! And that list also includes the two people on whom I fondly blame all of my writing — Laura Antoniou and Jacqueline Carey. If I wasn’t completely wiped out, I’d be squeeing all over the place.

It’s also a little terrifying. Because now I have to do it again.

You know what? Given a choice between jubilation and terror, I’ll go for the jubilation. I’d much rather squee!

If you’ve been anywhere on the internet today, you know that Disney released a video of the big number from the new movie Frozen. If you missed it, here. I’ll wait

Now, I haven’t seen the movie yet. We’re waiting for Winter Break, so we can all go together. But I’m VERY interested in this movie. Not only is this Disney’s first stab at feminism (and, from what I’ve heard, they do it very well. What took you so long, Disney?), but Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel) is being heralded as Disney’s first queer heroine.* Granted, it’s all subtext. But if this video is any indication, that is some really durned loud subtext.

Now, I’m not going to comment on that. I haven’t seen the movie, and I’m basing this all on a three-and-a-half-minute showstopping song. What I noticed in that 3:38 is Elsa’s sexual awakening. When we first see her, she is completely covered from neck to toes (minus the one glove). Her hair is bound up tight, and she reads as being very young (and isn’t it something that you can get pixels to project body language?) She’s completely repressed, and admits it: “Be the good girl you always have to be. Conceal, don’t feel.”

Be the good girl.

Remember. Good girls don’t do that.

Then she turns her back on what she’s been taught, turns away from everything she’s been lead to be afraid of, and accepts herself without worrying about anyone else : “I don’t care what they’re going to say.”

And then the cloak goes. That first layer of repression is gone, and she blossoms, casting off her old world for the one that she creates.

Then she lets her hair down. And we go from little girl to siren in one swell foop. Cleavage and dress slit up her thigh, possibly barefoot (hard to tell in the clip). And that swagger! This is a woman who has claimed her sexuality, and isn’t afraid of herself any more.

Honestly, if I can get that out of three and a half minutes, I wonder what I’ll get out of the rest of the movie???

*(We’re not counting what they’ve done with Once Upon a Time here. OUaT is for adults. They have a lot more leeway with what they’ll do with sex and sexual innuendo after 8PM)